Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/92

 The sun and the planets are the first chief spirits or deities, a heavenly people, pure and great, shielding all, beneficent to all, shedding benediction upon all—being rulers by turns over the world of light. The whole world is Ormazd in all its stages and varied existence, and in this kingdom of light all is good. To light belongs everything, all that lives, all essential being, all spiritual existence, the action, the growth of finite things, all is light, is Ormazd. In this is not merely sensuous life, life in general, but strength, spirit, soul, blessedness. In the fact that a man, a tree, an animal lives and rejoices in existence, possesses an affirmative nature, is something noble, in this consists their glory, their light, and this it is which is the sum and essence of the substantial nature of every individual existence.

The manifestation of light is worshipped, and in connection with this the element of locality has a value for the Parsi. Advantage is taken, for example, of the plains upon which naphtha wells abound. Light is burnt upon the altars; it is not a symbol, but is rather the presence of the ineffable, of the Good. All that is good in the world is thus reverenced, loved, worshipped, for it is esteemed as the son, the begotten of Ormazd, in which he loves himself, pleases himself. In like manner hymns of praise are addressed to all pure spirits of mankind. These are called Fravashis, and are either beings still in the body and still existing, or dead beings, and thus Zoroaster’s Fravashi is entreated to watch over them. In the same way animals are worshipped, because they have life, light in them. In worshipping these, the genii, spirits, the affirmative element of living nature, is brought into prominence and reverenced as the ideals of the particular kinds of things, as universal subjective forms, which represent the Divine in a finite way. Animals are, as already stated, objects of worship, but the ideal